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Celebrating World Refugee Awareness Month

Arts and culture are some of the most fundamental forms of self- and community-identification humans use to mold their identities and share their stories. Refugee populations are contributing to their new American communities through the arts as a means of sharing their cultures, histories, stories and above all, shaping their identities in a new environment.  BuildaBridge facilitates such efforts with refugees from over ten countries through the Refugee Project  - a multi-faceted program with memberships in two city-wide collaboratives designed to assist refugees, at all stages of resettlement in identifying adjustment strategies based on the strengths of their communities. The Refugee Project supports and facilitates art-making experiences for refugees as they pursue success, recovery, hope, healing and resiliency in a new culture.

This June, during World Refugee Awareness Month, BuildaBridge launched its second season of arts programming for Nationalities Services Center's Refugee Employment and Advancement Program (REAP). In addition, BuildaBridge provided a pilot art workshop for Iraqi mothers and children, re-started a summer term with refugee children from Myanmar of Burmese Chin and Karen ethnicities, and closed its first term with immigrant survivors of torture through PPR.  In each of BuildaBridge's Refugee Project's programs, artists facilitate art-making experiences towards improved community mental health that facilitates the development of refugees' identities in new cultures, assists ethnic groups in strengthening their capacities and community cohesion and assists individuals in making tangible contributions to their new communities.


BuildaBridge is eager to announce the launch of the Refugee Project's fifth year of programming beginning July 1st along with global examples of how the transformative power of the arts has ignited change, transformation and mutual understanding:

NSC celebrates World Refugee Day
Handcrafted Wares
Stories of Migration
Survivors of Torture artwork
Advocacy Refugee Exhibit

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